Women’s Peacemaking in South Asia

2018 ◽  
pp. 802-814
Author(s):  
Meenakshi Gopinath ◽  
Rita Manchanda
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Solid Foundation ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Gender Lens

This chapter demonstrates the complex interplay between victimhood and agency when viewed through a gender lens. Understanding the diverse ways in which women experience conflict provides a solid foundation for the production of a more inclusive dialogue on peace and security. Indeed, greater consideration needs to be given to how structural constraints and enabling spaces impact women’s capacity to participate substantively in peacemaking. As demonstrated throughout this chapter, women not only confront overt gender-based violence that strips them of bodily integrity, they also experience structural violence that exacerbates social and political discrimination. Drawing on the experience and research of WISCOMP, a South Asian initiative that seeks to facilitates women’s participation and leadership in conflict transformation and peace-building, this chapter highlights efforts by women’s civil society to mobilize and claim their rights and assert agency. It is also reveals the obstacles faced by women as they seek to claim substantive citizenship, and impact the public discourse following conflict.

scholarly journals A Feminist Perspective and the Challenge of Post Conflict Development in Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-36
Author(s):  
Mashood Omotosho
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

In the last two decades, Africa has witnessed series of wars and ethno-religious conflicts with devastating impact on women. Various atrocities against women have been recorded during these conflicts and these developments have created a dangerous dimension against non-combatant women in the continent. In an attempt to resolve the conflict and armed conflict on women in the areas of sexual and gender-based violence, series of peace missions and peace building mechanism were put in place. Despite the various peace negotiations, evidence has shown that women are largely absent from formal peace negotiations and their voices are not heard both at local and continental levels especially within the modern-day challenges and post conflict development. In fact, the transformation agenda of post-conflict peace negotiations routinely failed to consider the gendered causes and consequences of armed conflict and post-conflict reconstruction. It is against this backdrop that this paper attempts to reassess the ambivalent role of women in conflict management in Africa. More importantly, the paper argues that there is need to increase women’s participation in peace talks, planning of demilitarisation, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) and determining governance and security structures, especially in conflict prone areas. Ultimately, the paper seeks to also identify challenges hindering the role and the participation of women in post conflict development in Africa.

Addressing Rape Culture through Folktale Adaptation in Malaysian Young Adult Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Sharifah Aishah Osman
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Rape Culture ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Female Agency ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

Rape culture is a provocative topic in Malaysia; the public discourse on it is plagued by gender stereotyping, sexism, misogyny, and rape myths. Recent literary works aimed at Malaysian adolescent girls have interrogated rape culture more pointedly as a means of addressing gender-based violence through activism and education. In this article, I discuss two short stories, “The Girl on the Mountain” and “Gamble” as retellings of Malaysian legends and feminist responses to the normalization and perpetuation of rape culture in this society. Through the emphasis on female agency, consent, and gender equality, these two stories reflect the subversive power of Malaysian young adult literature in dismantling rape culture, while affirming the significance of the folktale as an empowering tool for community engagement and feminist activism.

scholarly journals The Pragmatics of Domestic Violence Discourse in Uruguay

SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401668537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Main Hypothesis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Gender Based

Domestic violence (DV) is a form of gender-based violence and a violation of human rights. As such, it was analyzed from the perspective of feminist theory in the dissertation this article is based on, by analyzing discourse pragmatics. Which are the socially accepted DV discourses in Uruguay? Which coincidences, contradictions, and paradoxes appear when we compare these discourses and those of everyday life? Which codes and subcodes should be modified by the sectors interested in the prevention and eradication of DV? The main hypothesis is that there are different types of opposition between the public discourse of different institutional sectors and that of everyday life. Describing these oppositions and, especially, unveiling the pragmatic paradoxes will enable us to develop a different type of discourse for the prevention and eradication of DV. As I am both a researcher and an activist on the topic, my epistemological choice was the autoethnography. This article provides some final reflections, included in the dissertation, on how the feminist movement needs to succeed in persuading decision makers and the mass media, and in building solid alliances to establish an information and monitoring system; the integration of the subject into the educational system; comprehensive legislation on gender-based violence; and new ways of communicating with all sectors, so as to create a new ideology on gender relations for the suitable prevention of DV.

scholarly journals COUNTERING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN IRAQI KURDISTAN: STATE-BUILDING AND TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaniv Voller
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Transnational Advocacy ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Honor Killings ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Gender Based

AbstractThe struggle against gender-based violence in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region has witnessed some significant achievements since the late 1990s. A subject long excluded from public discourse in the region, it has now moved increasingly into the mainstream, compelling the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to take legal and practical measures against such practices as honor killings, female genital mutilation, and domestic violence. This article traces the sources of these shifts in the KRG's stance, looking especially at the role of transnational women's rights networks in the region. It highlights these networks’ successful strategy of binding their cause to the KRG's endeavor to legitimize and consolidate its contested sovereignty over the Kurdistan Region. In doing so, the paper addresses an underexplored subject in the literature on women's rights campaigns in the Kurdistan Region and contributes to the study of transnational advocacy as a source of normative change.

scholarly journals Pandemic: Legal and Social Response

Law and World ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 14-39
Keyword(s):  
Student Mobility ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Social Response ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
Security Measures ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Legal Response ◽  
Gender Based

The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world and accelerated processes that could have taken decades without a pandemic. In this paper, the authors discuss the public and government responses to the new normal, nowadays reality, and most importantly, the legal regulations that have been enacted in different countries in response to the challenges. The paper discusses in detail issues related to security measures, social distance, gender issues, abortion, education and student mobility, employment, and entrepreneurship. A pandemic that has survived more than a year needs to be addressed. The decision-makers made efforts to create a provision for the influenza virus after it became prominent in society. The intention is not to be pessimistic but to be optimistic enough to create provisions for the future. Countries are aiming to achieve their commitments to recover from the pandemic. A pandemic demands a legal response as well as a social response. The research paper aimed to divert the attention of the readers to the untouched aspects of the law that are related to emergency situations, including pandemics. In the paper, we discuss the paradox of the pandemic, lockdown, and post-lock- down situations, as well as protests/riots, gender-based violence, healthcare, and education topics related to the changes that have taken place due to the pandemic.

Unlocking the Potential of CEDAW as an Important Accountability Tool for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pramilla Patten
Keyword(s):  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Internally Displaced ◽  
Optional Protocol ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
General Recommendation ◽  
Gender Based

This chapter explores the application of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to conflict and post-conflict contexts as detailed in General Recommendation 30. It examines the implications of CEDAW and General Recommendation 30 on gender-based violence, the trafficking of women, the situation of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, women’s participation, and women’s access to health, education, employment, and justice. It also focuses on CEDAW’s reporting procedure, and suggests that this tool be utilized more effectively to address women’s situations in conflict and post-conflict situations. The chapter also examines the Optional Protocol to CEDAW as an accountability tool. The chapter concludes by emphasizing the importance of CEDAW acting in synergy with the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda.

scholarly journals Gender Inequalities and the Effects of Feminine Artworks on Public Spaces: A Dialogue

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 158-167
Author(s):  
Hooshmand Alizadeh ◽  
Josef Kohlbacher ◽  
Rozhen Kamal Mohammed-Amin ◽  
Tabin Latif Raouf
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Kurdish Women ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The City

Feminist street art aims to transform patriarchal spaces into places of gendered resistance by asserting a feminist presence in the city. Considering this, as well as women’s social life, their struggle against lingering forces of patriarchy, and relating features of inequality (domestic violence), there was a feminist installation artwork by the young Kurdish artist Tara Abdulla that shook the city of Sulaimani in Iraqi Kurdistan on 26 October 2020. She had prepared a 4,800‐meter‐long washing line covered with the clothes of 99,678 Kurdish women who were survivors of sexual and gender‐based violence. They installed it along the busiest street of the city (Salim Street). She used this piece of feminine to express her reaction to the Kurdish society regarding, the abuse that goes on silently, behind closed doors. She also aimed towards normalizing women’s bodies. After the installation, she received many controversial reactions. As her artwork was a pioneering project in line with feminist issues in Kurdistan which preoccupied the city for quite a while, the aim of this article is to investigate the diverse effects of her work on the current dialogue regarding gender inequality in the Kurdish society. To do this, we used the research method of content analysis on big data (Facebook comments) to investigate the public reactions of a larger number of locals. The Feminine effectively exposed some of the deep‐rooted cultural, religious, and social barriers in addressing gender inequalities and silent sexual violence issues in the modern Kurdish patriarchal society.

The Tambourine Army

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
Danielle Roper ◽  
Traci-Ann Wint
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
Women's Rights ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Gender Based

In 2017 the radical women’s rights group known as the Tambourine Army emerged in response to gender-based violence, sexual abuse, and structures of impunity in Jamaica. The group used hashtags, organized marches, and teach-ins to encourage women to speak out against their abusers, to break the silence surrounding sexual abuse, and to advocate for survivors. Situating the Tambourine Army within traditions of women’s protest and contemporary forms of cyberactivism in the Caribbean, this essay examines the ways the group enacted a sonic disruption to the public and cyber spheres. It chronicles the rise of the movement, explores the centrality of the digital in the members’ activism, and assesses the methods deployed in the group’s contestation of postcolonial ideals of respectability.

Peacekeeping and the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls in Post-Conflict Societies: A Serious Enigma to Establishing the Rule of Law

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 184-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Morris
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Sexual Exploitation ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based

The article discusses the exploitation of women and girls by peacekeepers and its effect on efforts to establish the rule of law in a post-conflict situation. It provides a situational analysis of the problem, examining the issue from rights-based, stabilization, and organized crime perspectives. It considers the rule of law mandate of modern peace-building operations, including the ability of peacekeepers to help combat trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and girls. It proposes a solution to tackling gender-based violence, trafficking and exploitation in the establishment of the rule of law through accountability and domestic capacity-building. The work of committed peace-builders is critical to achieving this goal.

scholarly journals Defining Justice and Dignity Through Gendered Peace Building: A Case Study of Gender-Based Violence During Armed Conflict in Nepal

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-81
Author(s):  
Susan Risal
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
The Body ◽  
Peace Building ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Gendered Violence ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Gender Based

The prolonged transition and the long awaited journey for justice for a decade has led to increased anger and frustration among women who survived gendered violence during the Nepali armed conflict (1996-2006). During April 2017-May 2018, a case study fieldwork was conducted with women who survived conflict-related sexual violence during the armed conflict in Nepal. Using a critical theory framework and case study methodology, this research sought to understand how the women who faced gender based violence during the conflict era of Nepal define dignity and justice from their own lived experience and consequently, their needs for reparations. Ultimately, with resulting interventions by presenting these women’s voices and needs to the truth seeking commissions, other government bodies, and national and international organizations working with conflict affected women, women’s quest for dignity, justice and needs could be addressed. The findings of this study have also expanded the body of knowledge and best practices for reconciliation in contexts where gender based violence has been used as a weapon of war.

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